This story is from the comments by /u/Sweyn78 that are listed below, summarised with AI.
User Authenticity Assessment: Not Suspicious
Based on the provided comments, this account appears to be authentic. There are no serious red flags indicating it is a bot or a bad-faith actor.
The user (Sweyn78) identifies as a desister who took low-dose HRT but never socially transitioned. Their comments display:
- Personal Experience: They share specific, nuanced details about their own detransition, religious history, and political views.
- Consistent Perspective: Their stance is critical of rapid medicalization, especially for youth, while remaining nuanced and not simplistically anti-trans.
- Engaged Conversation: They ask relevant questions, offer supportive advice, and cite specific studies, demonstrating genuine engagement with the community's concerns.
The passion and criticism expressed are consistent with a genuine detransitioner/desister perspective.
About me
I was born female and my discomfort with my body started during puberty. I took testosterone for three years, thinking it was the answer to my anxiety and struggles with being a masculine woman. I stopped when I realized I could never truly become male and became worried about the permanent changes, like my deeper voice. Now I live as a woman and have found peace by thinking for myself instead of following one ideology. While I have some regrets about the medical effects, the journey ultimately helped me understand who I am.
My detransition story
My name isn't important. I’m just someone who tried to transition and then stopped, and I want to share my story in my own words.
I was born female. My journey with gender started when I was really young, around fourth grade. I grew up in a religious family, Presbyterian and Methodist, but I started getting into paganism and magick around that time, partly because of a video game. I think a lot of my early interest in goddess worship was actually a way to cope with feelings I didn't understand yet, which I now recognize as gender dysphoria. By high school, I had moved away from religion entirely and became a naturalist and atheist, though I still sometimes pray.
I never felt like I fit in, especially during puberty. I hated the changes my body was going through. I developed a deep discomfort with my breasts and my developing female shape. I spent a lot of time online, and I was definitely influenced by what I saw there and by the friends I had at the time. Looking back, I think a lot of my feelings were tied to other issues. I’ve always struggled with anxiety and low self-esteem, and I now suspect I might be autistic. I also used the idea of transition as a form of escapism, a way to run away from myself and my problems.
I decided to take testosterone. I was on a low dose of HRT for about three years. I never fully socially transitioned, though. I didn’t change my name or pronouns publicly. The medical side was something I did privately. I think part of my motivation was internalized homophobia; it was easier to think of myself as a masculine person becoming a man than to accept being a masculine woman.
Taking hormones did have some effects. My voice dropped and I grew more body hair. But I eventually hit a wall. I realized that no matter what I did, I could never actually become male. I could only ever approximate it. I’m a large person, in the top percentile for male height and frame, so even if I continued, I felt I’d just look like an “Amazonian” woman, not a man. This realization was a big reason I stopped.
I also became very concerned about the permanent effects, especially for young people. I never had top or bottom surgery, but the HRT alone has likely made me infertile. I worry about that sometimes. I think if you’re young, you should wait. Your brain is still developing, and a lot of those feelings can change after puberty. Don’t let yourself be pushed into a medical pipeline you don’t fully understand.
My thoughts on gender now are complicated. I don’t think we can truly change sex. We can change our appearance, but we become something else, a kind of medically-induced intersex state. For some people, that approximation is enough, and that’s okay. For me, it wasn’t. I do have some regrets about taking testosterone because of the permanent changes, but I don't regret the journey because it led me to a better understanding of myself.
I’ve benefited from stepping back and thinking for myself. I stopped surrounding myself with people who had a single, rigid way of thinking. I had to force myself to see people as individuals, not as groups. This independent thinking has been the most important part of my detransition.
Here is a timeline of my journey:
| Age | Event |
|---|---|
| 9 (4th Grade) | Began exploring paganism and magick, likely an early response to gender discomfort. |
| ~14-15 (High School) | Shifted to atheism/naturalism. Developed significant discomfort with female puberty. |
| 22 | Started low-dose testosterone (HRT). |
| 25 | Stopped testosterone after 3 years. Never socially transitioned. |
| Present | Living as a female, dealing with the permanent effects of HRT like voice change and likely infertility. |
Top Reddit Comments by /u/Sweyn78:
Nah. I never bought into that stuff to begin with. A Radical Centrist then, a Radical Centrist now.
Most of popular politics is a mixture of mind viruses (often corporate-sponsored) and team sports, and there are a lot of people who react to perspectives outside their own as if they were defending themselves personally. Very few take the time to sit down and think things through from scratch, without predetermined conclusions. In this always-connected world, it can be hard to take the time needed for that. I think a significant part of the polarization and closed-mindedness we see around us is from never getting enough time to your own thoughts, from always having some new stimulus thrown at you before you've had time to digest the previous ones.
I'm glad your experience got you thinking and questioning. Don't let yourself stop doing so, and don't just flip to accepting every arguement you see from the Right as unquestioningly as you once took things from the Left. Our societies need more people who can think independently.
I know the flare says female replies only, but I feel like you will appreciate learning about this because it's a pretty potent thing to share with her: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35034167
This study indicates that 100% of women develop prostate tissue in their vaginas.
The long-term health implications are unknown. But it's concerning. And not something doctors will warn her about, look for, or necessarily even know how to treat if it ever becomes a problem.
"Woke" did have a proper definition before it became a political football: possessing a Critical Consciousness, which is some illogical arcane BS from Critical Theorists.
The enemy is simpler than capitalism: it's the ruling classes maniplating the masses to maintain and further their power. Ruling classes under other economic systems would be (and have been) just as happy to screw over the average working man and woman. I think throwing this blame at one particular economic system distracts from the deeper reality here, which is simple abuse by those with power — a tale as old as civilization.
The solution to that, then, would be political system reform, rather than replacing the economic system. To prioritize the latter over the former is to propose treating a cut with an apple instead of stitches: a solution for the wrong problem.
I saw some stats for it back in 2010, but idk where. The numbers as I recall them were that roughly 1/3 of MtFs were gynephilic, 1/3 bisexual, 1/3 androphilic. For FtMs, it was like 90% gynephilic and 10% androphilic. These figures predated the trend, so they'd probably be pretty different now (if they were ever accurate to begin with).
I'm glad you're doing well!
I feel like that's kind of a wall every trans person runs into eventually: we can never truly be the target sex, y'know? We can only ever approximate it. And sometimes that approximation is good-enough! And that's fine. But also we're all kinda some kind of medically-induced intersex in some sense. Close to male or female, but never the same.
I'd never be able to get even close to an average female body myself; I'm in the top 90% for men in multiple categories (that hormones can't change), so even if I went on a transition dose (which part of me still wants) and then socially transitioned, I'd forever be Amazonian.
Stop hanging out with incels -- they will only make the problem worse.
Sign up for a normie activity that women like to do, and do it.
Force yourself to see them as individuals, rather than as members of a group.
Not every person is the same; not every woman is like the ones who once tormented you.
It's varied by time. I was born to Presbyterian parents, baptized Methodist, grew up in a Presbyterian church, went to a Methodist middle school, and went through a Presbyterian confirmation.
I started practicing magick in fourth grade (I took the game "Golden Sun" too literally, and what started as me practicing Psynergy irl quickly turned into actual magick). I was thence a kind of Christio-Pagan until 10th grade, when I started worshipping the Goddess instead of God (although it was in a framework of both being aspects of the same ultimate divinity). This shift to goddess-worship was likely in part a response to gender dysphoria. I was an eclectic Neopagan with Christian leanings from then until 12th grade, when I shifted to be more of an Indopagan; and I was that until 14th grade when I logicked myself into Naturalism (with Atheism being a consequence of that).
I've stayed a Naturalist since. But I'm not anti-religious, and actually still pray to the Goddess (and sometimes God) all the time. Sometimes I even still go to church (although doing so regularly is awkward because I don't believe the same things they do).
(Have to break this into two comments because of Reddit's character limit.)
Interesting! Fully transitioned? I feel like FtMtF is so much harder than MtFtM, given the voice and hair changes, PCOS, etc. Did you basically have to do part of an MtF transition to return to your native gender? So like, voice training, electrolysis, etc?
I bet the perspectives you gained are really invaluable. Very few people ever live as both genders, and even fewer go back.
Hey. I took low-dose HRT for 3 years but never socially transitioned. This isn't supported by the survey in its present state. I ended-up selecting the same option for social transition as for HRT, and then wrote out in a comment that my social transition response should be discarded.
Also, I used to be a lot more active than I am now, but I haven't left r/Detrans or the Discord, and might become more active again in the future. So I wasn't sure what to put there either. I just put that I was active in both.
The worst are if you're underage. If you take cross-sex HRT before finishing a natural puberty, you may be forever sterile (no chance of starting a family), and you may even never develop the ability to >!orgasm!<. So if you are underage, please do not start HRT. There is a very good chance that you will naturally stop being trans after puberty (90%ish iirc?) if you simply do nothing. If by your mid-20s you still feel trans, then you can consider medical intervention, and even then only after a lot of research and therapy. Don't allow yourself to be rapidly pushed through a pipeline you don't understand. Especially not if you are underage.